EPA plans to add microplastics, pharmaceuticals to water contaminants list

Responding to public health concerns about microplastics and pharmaceuticals in the nation's drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time has placed them on a draft list of water contaminants (Source: “EPA flags microplastics, pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water,” NPR, April 2).

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act requires the EPA to publish an updated version of its Contaminant Candidate List every five years. This is the sixth iteration of the list. Microplastics and pharmaceuticals appear in the draft of the upcoming list, alongside per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and dozens of other chemicals and microbes.

Also this week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $144 million initiative, called “STOMP: Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics,” to develop tools to measure and monitor microplastics in drinking water and, in a later stage, to remove them.